Saving abused mothers and children

Family Rescue gives them safe housing, legal help, financial advice

November 10, 2010|By Lolly Bowean, Tribune reporter

The first few times he hit her, Patricia Williams simply fought him back, punching and slapping and ducking blows while loudly voicing her defiance.

It wasn't until he punched her, causing her to drop her 8-month-old daughter to the floor, that she decided she'd had enough of the physical and emotional abuse. Without any place to turn, she called police and was referred to Family Rescue Inc.

"In all our (previous) fights, the children weren't involved," Williams said, choking back tears as she recalled that night. Her abuser "knocked my baby out of my arms, she hit the floor and that really hurt me. I wasn't going to sit there and let him keep putting his hands on me."

Today Williams, 24, is just one of hundreds of survivors of domestic violence who are slowly regaining independence with the help of Family Rescue. The service agency didn't just provide emergency shelter for Williams and her baby the night she left her violent South Side home. For the past two years, the agency has given crucial support to Williams that includes counseling, access to public aid and help with job placement. She currently lives with her child at the agency's apartment building.

"I'm happy now," she said. "They have helped me understand that it wasn't my fault. That I can get back on my feet. That I'm not alone."

Family Rescue is one of the Chicago-area organizations supported by Chicago Tribune Holiday Giving, a campaign of Chicago Tribune Charities, a McCormick Foundation Fund.

Located on the city's Southeast Side, Family Rescue has provided shelter and support primarily to women with children who are victims of domestic violence since 1981.

But unlike other programs that aim to prevent homelessness, Family Rescue targets survivors of violence and helps them find a more secure future as well as housing, said Tara B. Dabney, a spokeswoman for the agency. The women learn how to parent, how to find resources, how to budget and get jobs and find child care.

The concept is to help the women learn how to support themselves on their own, Dabney said. "Our goal is to help them heal from the trauma and then build a sustainable lifestyle. We are committed to our survivors for as long as they need us," she said.

Most of the women learn about Family Rescue from the agency's 24-hour crisis hot line. But because it is the only domestic violence agency with an office in a police station, some women get referred to Family Rescue when they call the police for help.

During troubling economic times such as these, calls about domestic violence increase, Dabney said. But at the same time, the agency has had to cut staff because of a decrease in funding. This year, the agency is operating with a $2.7 million annual budget and 47 staff members. Before grants and donations decreased, the agency had a $3.1 million budget and 63 employees, she said.

Still, the agency manages to serve 1,800 to 2,000 women and children each year. Sometimes that involves finding the women housing. In other cases, it includes everything from getting orders of protection to providing legal advocates, family counseling and medical help.

"Our main goal is to meet people where they are," Dabney said.

According to the Chicago Police Department's crime summary report, there were 344 homicides from January to September, and 13.2 percent — or about 45 people — were killed by their intimate partner.

Many of the women served by the agency are reluctant to use their names, fearing their abusers may find them and attack them. Family Rescue keeps the location of its shelter and tidy apartment complex a secret.

One of the agency's success stories is a 31-year-old woman who endured nine years of physical abuse by the father of her four children. With Family Rescue's help, in 2006 she left her abuser and eventually became independent.

But in a moment of weakness, she reunited with him. Earlier this year he beat her unconscious. And she turned back to the agency and was put back on the path to a healthy life.

"I felt embarrassed, angry with myself to even have to go back," she said. "I was supposed to have my stuff together, and in 2010 here I am again. But they are very compassionate, and they go above and beyond to help."

Williams said she and her daughter were living with her boyfriend when he was fatally stabbed. Traumatized and depressed, she moved in with her boyfriend's mother.

At some point, one of the men who lived in the house became possessive and controlling, Williams said. He'd steal her money and tell her she couldn't leave the house. And then he became violent, she said.